The Characters You Don’t Like
June 18th, 2007 by Jason Starr
I’m reading an advance copy of Philip Roth’s new novel Exit Ghost and I’m enjoying it hugely. I haven’t read any Roth in a while and I’d almost forgotten what a great writer he is. This book might be one of his all-time best.
I’ll write more about the book in another entry or on my website, but as I‘ve been reading I’ve been thinking about his main character, Nathan Zuckerman, and an issue that often comes up in the literary world. Professors, booksellers, agents, readers, etc. often question whether or not a character is likeable or not. In rejection letters, agents and editors will sometimes comment that they didn’t like the main character, and professors might say the same thing when critiquing stories. But I’ve often wondered, Is too much made of this one issue? After all, a likable character is just one of many things that can make a book entertaining. There’s also pace, plot, dialogue, setting, atmosphere, etc., and even if a character isn’t likable that doesn’t necessarily mean the character isn‘t fun to read about. In Roth’s books, most readers probably wouldn’t describe Zuckerman as likeable, but who cares? In fact, for me, what makes his character so compelling are his unlikable qualities, his edginess and bitterness and wicked sarcasm. If he didn’t have these characteristics, he’d be bland and interesting and that would be a major problem.
Which leads me to another common complaint: I wouldn’t want to be friends with that character. Is being friends with a character in a novel all that important? I wouldn’t want to be friends with Kafka’s characters, but I love reading about them. What about MacBeth? A nice guy to hang out with? Ian McEwan–one of my all-time favorite writers–has had many characters I wouldn’t want to be caught in a dark alley with. Or what about in crime fiction? How about getting a couple of brews with Walter Neff from Double Indemnity? Or how about hanging out with The Talented Mr. Ripley?
Of course if a novel has a nasty protagonist and doesn’t have anything else going for it that could be a major problem. On the flip side, there are a lot of very shitty books in the world with very nice main characters. But, in general, while I think a likable main character can be one important ingredient of a great novel, I don’t think it’s the major requirement, and I don’t think it should be used as an umbrella criticism.
Photo courtesy of mattutino.
The best non-likable character I ever read was Die Nadel in Ken Follet’s Eye of the Needle. I hated him, I rooted for him, I knew it wasn’t going to end well for him, yet I couldn’t help hope he made it somehow. A compelling read.
Great post, Jason, and good reminder that nice can be boring in fiction.
i recently received feedback on one of my favorite characters in my w.i.p., the strongest being that he wasn’t ‘likeable’ . it bothered me at first but i think his initial ‘unlikeability’ is key to his growth arc in the book. he needs to change in order to succeed. good post!
I think we’re talking about heroes vs. anti-heroes. Tony Montana in Scarface isn’t necessarily a likeable character. Likewise for Tony Soprano.
Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark has an entire series based on an anti-hero; The Parker novels (Payback). Parker is a mean, grouchy bastard. But there’s a charm in his mean determination. He believes if you’re gonna do a crime, you do it right. Most of the ‘villains’ in those novels are people who cheat him or who are so bullheaded and incompetent that they botch the job and make life tough for Parker. So in a world of criminals Parker is often the lesser of two evils, and admirable for trying to do things clean and professional.
There is also Lawrence Block’s Hit Man novels, featuring Keller. Keller kills people for a living, and when he’s not on the job he struggles to find a hobby and through hobbies some desperate connection to the definition of ‘normal.’ Block’s other character Bernie Rhodenbarr, a professional thief.
Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer isn’t exactly the spitting image of ‘clean’ either. He’s a brute — more often than not a bull in the china shop. He beats people up, destroys property, and in the end he always blasts the murderer before the cops can get there. Hammer doesn’t believe in the justice system… he is the judge, jury, and executioner.
Anti-heroes are very much ingrained in Western culture. I’d take that one step further in the case of America… Being founded in revolutionary spirit there’s a great deal of Anti-hero threaded into the fabric of the nation. We love our cowboys… which brings up a whole other set of unsavory characters… those played by Clint Eastwood both in Westerns and as cop Dirty Harry.
It’s a huge part of our culture.
Another part of this is that whether a character is likable or not is so subjective. Tony Soprano is a good example. Let’s say he was a character in your novel and you submitted that book to publishers. I guarantee you that half the agents and editors who read the mansucript would say, “Sorry, the character isn’t likable.” Those same readers might accuse you as the author of not liking your own character simply because they didn’t like him. Then you’d find people who’d tell you that they loved Tony. That they loved the dark humor and irony and totally got what you were trying to do. Those same people would tell you how obvious it is that you love creating characters…So then what is the value of someone commenting that he or she doesn’t like your character? None, as far as I can see. If everybody hates your character, that could indicate a problem. But if you’re submitting a novel and an agent says I don’t like your character, I’d forget it and move on. The agent was probably just looking for any excuse to reject the work and, for some reason, “I didn’t like the character” has become a very overused fallback.
Agreed–it doesn’t matter so much whether or not a protagonist (or antagonist, for that matter) is likable, but whether or not they’re *compelling.* Do the make the reader want to keep going, to find out more about where they and their story are going?
Nice post, Jason, and good conversation here. You can give me a serial-killer protagonist if you’d like, just make sure I understand his/her rationale. I’m not going to root for this character, but I’ll be hooked on the journey thanks to the authenticity element.
I haven’t read Stephen King’s new novel Blaze (authored under his pseudonymn, Richard Bachman), but his protag, Clayton Blaze Blaisdell, seems a good one to look at for this discussion. Will you feel sorry for Blaze’s kidnappee or Blaze himself, who’s been maltreated his whole life, and who you’ll get to know through flashback chapters throughout the book? Seems like a good summer read!
What one reader likes about a character, someone else may dislike. A series character that becomes popular and well-read isn’t necessarily a universally-liked character. It most likely means that most readers find something about or within that character that they can identify with or understand. Maybe he always catches the bad guy and readers like books where good overcomes evil. Or maybe he plods on despite something bad that has happened to him in his past and people identify with that. Different readers can see different things within the same character. Sort of a long-around way of saying I agee with all the other comments.
Jane Espenson has a great post, similar topic.